Michael Blount, who transferred from Salisbury to
North Rowan prior to the school year, decided to return to
Salisbury earlier this week.

Blount has
been a solid player for the Cavaliers. He’s started in the
defensive secondary, has seen time at wide receiver and is the
county’s top punter (12 punts, 38.2 average).

“Michael
came to see me this weekend. He and his brother (Boo) were
missing their girlfriends and their old buddies (at
Salisbury),” North Rowan head coach Roger Secreast
said.

“I want
the kids to be happy and that (Salisbury) is where they were
happy. I told Michael he needed to play football over there
and I told coach (Raymond) Daugherty to see him and have him
come out. No hard feelings.”

Blount did
in fact come out for Salisbury football, running through his
first practice with his old teammates Tuesday.

“We
welcome him back to Salisbury. He’s a a good athlete, a good
football player and I think he’ll help us,” Daugherty said.
“He was treated the same way as any other transfer to
Salisbury High School.”

Daugherty
said the Hornets are looking at Blount at several positions
but there is no timetable on the senior’s return. The Hornets,
at 0-4, have seven games remaining on the 1999
schedule.

Sophomore
quarterback Drew Davis didn’t have a big-yardage game as a
passer in his second game as a varsity starter, completing 9
of 20 for 127 yards, but he showed potential with several
clutch throws in the second half of East’s 31-28 loss to
Central Cabarrus.

Davis is
East’s only true quarterback after Raymondo Brady went out,
probably for the season, with a knee injury in East’s win over
Mount Pleasant on Sept. 3.

East
trailed 12-6 at halftime, but Davis hit tight end Mark
Misenheimer with a pass that went for a 45-yard gain.
Misenheimer dived across the goal line, but was ruled down at
the Central 1, setting up a touchdown by fullback Chris
Faavesi. Hunter Kepley’s conversion put East up
13-12.

Davis had
reason to be down after he had two straight passes intercepted
by linebacker Erik Dalton, one of them setting up a touchdown
that gave the Vikings a 31-21 lead.

However,
the sophomore soon had the Mustangs on the scoreboard again,
hitting wide receivers Nick Lefko (31 yards) and Brent Lambert
(12 yards) to set up Lambert’s 5-yard TD catch with 2:28 to
go.

When
East’s Adam Trexler recovered Kepley’s onsides kick, East had
the ball again at the Central 35. That possession ended
quickly when Jeremy Alsop picked off a Davis pass.

East got
the ball back at the Central 12 with just 42 seconds left. His
first throw was incomplete, the second went to halfback-wide
receiver Cal Hayes Jr., who scrambled and lost 11 yards, then
a pass to Lambert in the end zone was broken up by
Alsop.

The game
ended with Kepley barely missing a 40-yard field goal that
would have tied the score.

As for
Davis’ effort, coach Jeff Safrit said, “He made a couple of
decisions that may not have been the best, but he’s a
sophomore. That’s going to come with time. We had a chance to
win it; that’s all you can ask.”

Davis, who
saw some action as a freshman, has completed 19 of 31 passes
for 234 yards in three games.

n

CAL, WOW!
Cal Hayes Jr. is off to an amazing start in the sophomore’s
second varsity season at East. His 95-yard kickoff return for
a touchdown against Central was spectacular. Hayes appeared to
be stopped at his own 35, made a move to his right to break a
couple of tackles, then was gone down the right
sideline.

Later,
Hayes’ 46-yard punt return set up East’s last
touchdown.

“He’s an
exceptional athlete,” said Safrit. “I’ve said it over and
over: We probably haven’t even started to see everything he
can do.”

Hayes was
hit with leg cramps on East’s next-to-last play and wasn’t on
the field for the last scrimmage play, taking away one of
Davis’ passing options.

“That was
their (Central’s) best thing that he wasn’t on the field when
we needed to score,” said the East coach.

After
opening the season with tough games against West Rowan,
Albemarle and Concord, the Hornets were relieved to see a team
with a similar record. But perhaps Salisbury was too relieved
to see 0-3 South. The Raiders pulled away late for a 31-0
win.

“Most
people thought we could come down here and run right through
them since we had the same record,” Hornet Ken Drye said.
“They’re better than most people thought they were. It really
seems like we’ve taken a step back.”

The
Hornets shouldn’t have to guard against overconfidence this
week — undefeated 4A squad Davie County pays a visit
Friday.

n

no room to
run: One of Salisbury’s biggest problems in the first half
Friday against South was where the Hornets got the
ball.

Daugherty’s offense started on the 10-yard line in its
first drive and punted from the end zone, started its second
drive from the 2 (after an interception) and punted from the
end zone and had first-and-10 from the 3 after a fumble
recovery on its fourth drive. That final drive was the only
one in which the Hornets got more than one first
down.

Getting
Salisbury out of trouble on all of those occasions was punter
Patrick May, who splits time with Tom Sexton’s soccer squad.
May launched six punts for a 38.7-yard average.

Raiders
head coach Rick Vanhoy empathized with Daugherty when he
looked over and saw about 10 Hornets standing on the sideline
in reserve Friday night. But he gladly took advantage of
South’s superior depth in the Raiders’ 31-0 win.

“I went
through the same thing last year, I think I walked in
Raymond’s shoes,” Vanhoy said. “You’ve got a limited number of
athletes, you’ve got to get them on the field as much as
possible and it gets to be a long night for them.”

South
ended its 1998 season with just 28 players left on the roster,
so Vanhoy remembered those long fourth quarters in which his
weary defenders were getting steam-rolled.

Running
backs Ernie Wiggins and Keith Garrett especially enjoyed that
last quarter, reeling off big runs as South tacked on two more
touchdowns over the final 12 minutes.

“They
started getting tired,” Wiggins said. “They have so many
players going both ways and we platoon, so we’ve always got
fresh legs. We just took it to them.”

n

OFFENSIVE:
The 31 points South put up against Kannapolis two weeks ago
weren’t a fluke, as the Raider offense proved it packs some
punch by scoring 31 more against Salisbury.

The last
time South scored 30 or more points in back to back games was
in 1997, with its only two wins of the season coming 39-28
against Northwest Cabarrus and 38-7 against South
Stokes.

Two-way
starter Ryan Craft had a terrific game for the Wonders Friday
in their 63-13 rout of Sun Valley.

Craft
caught a TD pass and also intercepted a pass.

The senior
speedster is the younger brother of William Craft, who was the
starting quarterback on the Wonders’ 1997 state 3A title
team.

William
Craft, incidentally, is now a walk-on QB for the East Carolina
University team.

n

ALIVE AND
KICKING: Wonder coach Bruce Hardin was ecstatic over the
improvement in the Wonders’ kicking game.

Extra
points were an adventure in their first two contests, but
soccer player Rush Rollins banged through nine straight PATs
against Sun Valley.

The
Wonders also got two great punt returns from Blair Hardin, who
set up a TD with each return.

“Blair
really worked hard on that area,” said coach Hardin. “He’s
faster than last year, and his philosophy is not to let
anything hit the ground and roll 20 yards on us.”

The
Wonders are still concerned about their punting game, but they
eliminated that problem area on Friday. Their offense was so
effective, they didn’t have to punt a single time against the
Spartans.

n

PUTTING
THE ‘D’ BACK IN WONDERS: After yielding 18 and 31 points in
their first two outings, the Wonders played very well
defensively against Sun Valley.

The
Spartans scored just once against the Wonders’ first-team
defense.

“Give us
some time,” said Wonder Marcus Rivens. “This is going to be a
very good defense.”

n

NORTH IS
NEXT: The Kannapolis-North Rowan game has become one of the
area’s top rivalries. The green teams renew friendships next
Friday at Memorial Stadium.

“We always
look forward to that game,” said Rivens. “They’re a good team
and they’re fun to play the way they throw the football. I
know our defensive linemen are licking their chops, getting
ready to chase (North QB) Mario (Sturdivant)
around.”